


Reflections In A Looking Glass

by Froggy1988



Series: Cassarian Advent Calendar 2020 [16]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Cassarian Advent Calender 2020 (Disney), Day 16, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and more fluff, Fluffier than the fluffiest fluffy bunny rabbit, Sleepy Cuddles, To stay snuggly warm, Who has wrapped himself in fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:41:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28109511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Froggy1988/pseuds/Froggy1988
Summary: Varian thinks about how good he and Cass look together, and remembers how it came to be that they're cuddled up in the warmth of each other's arms a few days before Christmas.Fluff - A how they got together story.Stands alone or fits with another story called 'Through the Window'.Cassarian Advent Calenedar Day 16
Relationships: Cassandra/Varian (Disney: Tangled)
Series: Cassarian Advent Calendar 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035303
Comments: 8
Kudos: 17





	Reflections In A Looking Glass

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DG_DarkFantasy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DG_DarkFantasy/gifts).



> For Divi – who always takes the time to support writers with kind words and moments of advice. You commented on Through the Window, that you wanted to see this from Varian’s and Cass’s perspective, well – here’s Varian’s POV.  
> It is Teen appropriate, but my writing style can be a little sensuous.

Reflections in a looking glass.

Varian looked at the reflection in his mother’s old mirror. It sat on the battered chest of drawers in his room. He hardly ever paid attention to it anymore, gone were the childish days when he used to speak into it, imagining the reflection of his mother talking back to him, as it had every morning of his early years, when he sat chatting to her as she brushed her hair, her reflection always watching him with a soft smile.

In the darker years he’d covered the mirror up with an old shirt, he’d not liked what had been looking back at him, the emptiness in his house, the emptiness in his eyes. Anytime he’d seen himself reflected in the river or the shiny metal of his automatons he’d lied to himself that it was the distortions, in imperfections in the surfaces that were making his reflection unrecognisable to himself.

Today though the reflection made him smile and filled him with warmth, because today he wasn’t the only person reflected in the mirror. Cassandra was there too, draped across him as they laid together on his bed, looking for all the world as if she belonged there. They looked good together, comfortable, happy. The lines of her body seemed to blend and curve into his. Even the clothes that they were wearing seemed to blend together, the brown of his leather apron looking natural against the green of her travelling cloak. He felt no need to move yet, no need to speak yet, he was just happy to be in the moment, wrapped up in her. Though his mind did drift a little, thinking about how it was he had come to find himself in this perfect moment.

His mother used to say ‘sometimes all it takes for everything to change is a single heartbeat.’ Varian thought he knew which moment it was that changed things between him and Cassandra, a chance moment, nothing major, nothing important, probably unseen by the outside world. It was one of many moments they’d shared, but something about it had been different. Varian had been caught out by a sudden rain burst whilst in the marketplace. Covering his head he’d run for the nearest cover, apologising as he scooted in next to somebody who’d also chosen that awning to shelter under. He’d looked up into the familiar face of Cassandra. Their bodies were close together in the small space and they were both panting from the sprint to undercover, their eyes met and they both burst out laughing at the same time.

The next time he had seen her something was different, a shyness that was never there before. That day he’d stepped forwards to help her mount her horse, and unlike before she’d not waved him off or said she could do it herself. The feeling of the warmth of her under his hands had lingered long after she had ridden away.

A few days later there had been a feast at the castle. Their eyes had met over the candlelight, she’d given him a small smile before looking away. Yet every time that he’d glanced back at her, their eyes had meet again. That night he’d caught her sleeve as everybody had got ready to leave.

“Walk with me, in the gardens.”

He’d just wanted to be close to her for a little longer, to look at her in her green silk dress, to smell the fresh gooseberry scent of her soap. They’d walked for a while in silence, and Varian realized it probably seemed odd to her that he’d asked her to walk with him and yet not said a word. Trying to think of something to say he stopped and turned to her.

“Cassandra I… “

His words had been silenced by a kiss, the type of kiss that you lose all sense of time in. One where when it finally ends, for a moment you don’t know where you are. A kiss that was worth a million words, or maybe just three: I want you; I need you; I like you; I love you; I see you; be with me.

They had one week, before she had to go away. She had promised to spend half a year in a neighbouring kingdom training guards. Duty was important to Cassandra, and the idea of staying, well, Varian doubted it would ever have entered her mind. So they had one week for whatever was between them to become something strong, or something that would fizzle out with the time and distance that was going to be between them.

The week was too short, but any amount of time with her would have been too short when he knew he wanted a lifetime. There had been no awkwardness between them, and no holding back, they’d known each other for years, they didn’t need to pretend to be something that they weren’t. The last night, they’d held each other, watching the night turn into day, wanting to hold onto every last word, every last breath. When they could no longer deny the light streaming through his window he’d helped her once again onto her horse, and once again she’d looked down at him wordlessly before riding away.

The kingdom she was station at wasn’t actually more than a week’s ride away, and they had been able to continue writing to each other. Each letter a promise that the distance did not change anything, what they’d had together, though just a week, had meant something to them both. Something life changing.

Then he’d received the best letter of his life.

_Do you want to spend Christmas with me?_

_I’m coming home early, nobody knows yet._

He’d not hesitated as he’d scrawled a single word on a sheet of paper and run out to make the last post.

_Yes._

Varian didn’t know exactly what the letter had meant. Cassandra knew his father was away for Christmas, that Varian was alone. Did she mean to spend the entire of the Christmas period alone with him? With nobody knowing that she was back? With nobody disturbing them? Time alone with Cassandra after four months apart sounded like heaven. He knew what it was when they were alone together, how magical those moments were, how they just became tied up in their own little bubble that was warm and cosy and made him just feel so full somehow. He yearned to feel that again.

There hadn’t been any more letters, but today, two days before Christmas, he’d been working in his lab when there had been a knock on his door. He’d barely breathed as he’d run to open it, knowing, just knowing it was her, and he’d been right. There she’d been, standing on his doorstep, shivering slightly in the cold. He’d warmed her up in his arms, and that’s where she had stayed, and it was exactly where she was meant to be. Time had disappeared again, and Varian didn’t know if it had been minutes or hours since they had collapsed into each other’s arms, just caught up in the feel of being next to each other, the gentle rise and fall of each other’s breaths and the heartbeats keeping time against fingertips that had snuck through buttons to find the warmth of flesh. Varian kept running his fingers through her hair, it was so impossibly silky and fine, and he could smell that lovely fresh slight acidic smell of gooseberries that fell around her.

“You know, if people knew you were staying alone here with me they’d talk.” He muttered into her hair.  
  


“We’re the type of people that people love to talk about.” Cassandra answered after a moment.  
  


“True.”  
  


“And it might be nice if they were talking about us as a couple, instead of as individuals for a change.”

  
“As a couple?”

“That didn’t come out as I meant it to, like as a pair.” Cassandra said leaning up on her elbow and looking at him with a light blush.

“It could be as a couple; I mean if you want to put a label on it.”  
  


“We all know how I feel about labels.” She said with a light laugh. Though she reached up and placed the softest of kisses against his lips. “Okay.” She said, it was barely a breath, barely heard even though she was stretched out over him. It was like a secret whispered just for him, not fragile though, he didn’t want to think of anything about them being fragile. Even a whisper can be strong when it comes from the heart.

“Cassandra I…” He felt rather than saw the change in demeanour in her. The tensing of her body against his.

“What is it?”

She stared past him, her eyes intent for a moment.

“Nothing.” She said distractedly. “I just thought I saw something outside the window, but it must have just been the wind.” She turned back to look at him again, the bubble closing back around them again.

“Yes.” She said.

“Yes?”  
  


“I want to be a couple.”  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Tomorrow's advent story is by myself (froggy1988) and is called 'Blood In the Snow' - it's teen rated but I should point out that it's quite angsty and has some characters getting hurt in it.


End file.
